Lake woman gets a kick out of donkeys

Christine ShowSentinel Staff Writer

From her quiet ranch near Lake County's Sugarloaf Mountain, Sandi White is working to find homes for her pointy-eared friends. She isn't rescuing typical pets such as dogs and cats. Instead, the 55-year-old animal lover has an established adoption center for a different four-legged critter: the donkey.

"I'm so in love with donkeys," said White, a practice manager at Lake Cardiology in Mount Dora. "They are the sweetest, most loving animals on the face of the Earth."

White operates the only donkey-adoption center in Florida as part of Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue, one of the largest donkey-rescue organizations in the country. Before she became a donkey rescuer, White was one of many Central Florida residents worried that her cats could become dinner for coyotes lurking in the area. So after she heard donkeys might intimidate coyotes, she did research and fell in love with the animal.

Now she owns six donkeys — Kumar, Greystroke, Savannah Mae, Eevie, Lacy's Mom and Okie — who mostly lounge in a fenced-in area with an open barn. The affectionate animals, who eat hay, share traits familiar to dog lovers: They crave attention and have an insatiable appetite to be petted. The second your hand moves away, they're nudging your arm right back onto them.

Personality of a dogTheir curiosity prompts them to follow in your direction. If they notice you leaving, they'll line up together, sounding off their high-pitched "hee-haw."

Paul Lorentz, 57, adopted three donkeys from White after the original owner could no longer care for them.

"I just like to watch them out there. They play with each other," said Lorentz, who lives just outside the Eustis city limits. "If I go out there, they'll come right over to me. When it's feed time, they're honking at me."

But there are some restrictions to donkey ownership. For example, Lake County residents need to live in an area zoned for agriculture. In Orange County, the same rules apply as in Lake, but residents need at least an acre of land.

For those who fit the requirements, owning a donkey has its benefits, said Mark Meyers, executive director of Peaceful Valley, which has six adoption centers nationwide, including White's center north of Clermont.

"They have a personality more like a dog," Meyers said. "They are loyal, compassionate and very protective."

Problem worsensPopular misconceptions about these gentle creatures have made it difficult to find good homes for the donkeys, he said. Most often, donkeys are thought of as stubborn animals quick to aggressively kick a nearby human.

"We expect animals to do exactly what we say," said Meyers, 44, who has rescued donkeys since the late 1990s.

Donkeys also face issues including improper care from owners; a lack of veterinarians willing to work with them; and limited local, state and federal funds dedicated to ensure their safety.

So Peaceful Valley tries to make sure both the domesticated and wild animals live in safe conditions as it serves as an advocate for donkeys by educating the public.

The organization mostly rescues wild donkeys called burros from rural areas in the West and works with them at Peaceful Valley's three facilities in Texas, California and Virginia to ensure that they are well-mannered and healthy. Once they are fit for adoption, they are transferred to the adoption centers. Meyers said the organization has about 1,000 donkeys in its system.

"And the number just keeps going up," Meyers said. "Our goal is to be able to rescue a donkey out of any situation anywhere in the country. We're about 10 years away from being able to solve the problem."

Getting attachedThe organization joins several donkey-rescue groups in the United States, from Colorado to Arizona to New York. Frances D'Angela, founder of Crossroads Donkey Rescue in Dimondale, Mich., said she began her rescue program in 2001 after noticing that no such program existed in the area.